Update: This bike was sold within two days of listing on RSBFS exclusively using our Featured Listing service. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc
Built between 1988-1990, Honda’s VFR750R RC30 was a limited-production motorcycle intended to homologate Honda’s planned entry in the newly-created World Superbike Championship. Pure-prototype racing machines like Moto GP bikes need have nothing in common with any other product being produced for public consumption, but most other forms of racing require that the bikes be based, however loosely, on production machines. For WSB, the rules require that a certain number machines be sold for street use to make the bike eligible for racing.
With a V4 displacing 748cc and crammed with all manner of titanium and magnesium parts, including gear-driven cams, the RC30 spec-sheet looks like the creation of some track junky’s fevered imagination. And the rest of the bike was just as wild, with an innovative slipper clutch and a single-sided swingarm yanked straight of the ELF endurance racers, although it lacked that bike’s truly striking wheels and single-sided front end.
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From the seller: 1990 Honda RC30 for Sale
US spec 1990 Honda RC30 for sale. Number 187 of only 200 produced for the US market in 1990, somewhat rare bike with valid title. The bike was manufactured January 1990 and originally titled in Tennessee. It currently has a valid Florida title. The motorcycle is located in central Florida.
This RC30 is in very nice original condition with only 10,000+ miles. The bike has been in a museum since 2007 and was professionally prepped for display. Please look at the pictures to see that there are only a few small nicks on the bike. The bodywork is almost perfect except for 2 small areas; (a) there is slight checking in the gel coat on the right side under the seat, (b) the underside of the front fairing has some minor scratches and a small area of gel coat checking on the left bottom. It is 100% OEM except for upgraded break and clutch cables, and upgraded front calipers which are cast iron (the OEM calipers come with the bike). The bike only has 1 OEM key. The buyer has a choice; available in its current pristine museum form, or I will prepare it for the road. I guarantee there are no mechanical flaws with this bike. I have sold off most of my 21 bike Honda collection over the past 3 years and have received zero complaints. I only have this RC30 and a pristine RC45 left from the collection.
Please see the list of OEM Honda RC30 memorabilia that comes with the bike (12 items). Contact: GAULANDY@YAHOO.COM
The performance seems tame today, with just north of 100hp at the wheel [a claimed 118hp at the crank] pushing almost 500lbs wet, and standing-start acceleration hampered by a race-track friendly first gear that took you all the way to 80mph. But that was hardly the point. With feedback and feel to spare, and a flexible powerband and a spine-tingling v4 snarl, the bike was faster and lighter than anything in the 750cc class when introduced, although for the price, you’d expect it to be: $21,000 in 1990.
But more importantly, the bike was competitive right out of the box, winning the WSB title for which it was intended in both 1988 and 1989, along with a slew of victories at the TT and in endurance racing that lasted well beyond the normal lifespan of a racing motorcycle. The road-going RC30 was the best of both worlds: an exotic racing machine with direct ties to factory racing efforts and an eminently useable motorcycle for the road with actual dealer support and surprising reliability.
These are some of the rarest and most collectible Hondas of the modern era and, at the seller’s $22,000 asking price, seems likely to be snapped up quickly.
-tad
